As most of you know, a very important annual celebration is about to take place. It’s the Terry Fox run! The Terry Fox run attracts thousands of Canadians who run, walk, or bike in remembrance of Terry Fox who ran to end cancer. Terry was one of the greatest athletes to run across Canada on the face of this earth. He did it for a cause! He was a victim of cancer which led to his leg amputation and later on his death. Terry was a brave man who decided to do this run because he was so overcome by the suffering of other people battling cancer. The Terry Fox run is held all over the GTA and across other parts of the world and it’s when people come together and run for Terry.

The Terry Fox Run is usually, but not always, held on the second Sunday after Labour Day each year. All community Runs are to be hosted on that Sunday. School organizers are to host their fundraiser on the National School Run Day in September. It is one of the most fascinating marathons of the year!! I wanted to touch base about it today, because I believe in Terry’s cause and support all good causes out there. And as Canadians, I think we should never forget those people who have done very important things with a great goal!

My goal in life is, to get a good education leading up to a great future. In fact it is that simple and an amazing one at least to say! But has anyone reading this, thought of a goal that is a bit harder or trickier to pursue? Terry Fox has! His goal was to raise money for future cancer research by running all across Canada even if he had a fake leg, and that is what he did!! Unfortunately, he died in the process. God Bless him as he rest in peace! But it does not mean that his dream is done with just because he is not there to continue running. We can all help Terry Fox. We can all outrun cancer!! $650 million has been raised worldwide for cancer research in Terry’s name so far by the Terry Fox Foundation!! Let’s make that amount rise!

There are plenty of different ways that we can participate. Those options include:

  • Run Run Run: Whether it’s at school, it’s at the annual marathon, or it’s simply in your neighborhood, you can run to raise money for the Terry Fox Foundation!!
  • Donate: You can visit http://www.terryfox.org/ to donate and any amount counts!!
  • Volunteer: Start a new fundraising event; help organize a fundraising event, help out on the day of the event; help at the office; help in other ways.

I will be participating at my school’s Run for Terry event! I have even started a new fundraising page where you can support me by donating by my page. For security purpose I could not share the link here but will share it with some of you by email. 100% of your money will go to the Terry Fox Foundation. These events such as the Terry Fox Run, inspire me so much because it brings everyone together to make a difference that counts!! Terry really deserves to be honored as that title of an important Canadian. We can all be important Canadians. We don’t have to do something as huge as Terry to get that title. It’s also the small things that count!!

I was running last year for Terry and I ran without stopping once! I wanted to convince myself that I was physically able to keep going. To this day, I still push myself to keep going even when it feels like I cannot go on. I bet Terry wanted to do the same thing, but when his cancer moved to his lungs, he was forced to stop. All the grades of our school join for the Terry Fox run. We run and see how many laps we can run. Our teachers even added a good strategy to get everyone running the most laps we could. They added a system where you get a Popsicle stick for every lap you run and that the class that had the most Popsicle sticks combined would win a pizza party! That got the kids interested, and in total, or school ran more than 600 laps!!! This year, I hope we beat our record and continue to help Terry! To help the cancer researchers find the cure for the terrible disease. What a great cause!!

Venus Wambura